Question of the Week: What’s one scientific fact you learned as a youngster that still affects your environmental decisions as an adult?

2009 May 26

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

A salt marsh is an important fishery breeding ground. Coal and oil deposits formed from plants that lived millions of years ago. So many seemingly small facts reflect just a part of the larger environment in which we live.

What’s one scientific fact you learned as a youngster that still affects your environmental decisions as an adult?

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I remember my mother constantly telling me “turn the light off when you leave a room”. Turning off the light is such a habit that has continued and stayed with me as an adult. It is just one of the minor things we can do to save energy. I hope this is a habit my little girl will pick up on as she grows up.

Also, seeing the pictures of animals covered in oil from the Exxon Oil spill in the 80’s and seeing birds being affected by the plastic 6-pack coke rings……

Do not kill snakes just because you are afraid of them. Snakes are a part of the balance of nature–an interdependent web of existence. I think about that whenever people start messing with a population of specie because it becomes incompatible with human goals–like building homes or vacation homes in areas inhabited by mountain lions or bears or certain birds, plants or insects.

Sorry to break this to you, but scientifically speaking, plants don’t “breathe” carbon dioxide. They breathe oxygen, and use it in much the same way we do, for cellular respiration. They take in carbon dioxide for photosynthesis which produces the sugar that they burn with the oxygen in cellular respiration. Anyway, whatever inspires positive action is probably OK. I’m just an old science teacher …

When I was in elementary school I learned that it takes something like 500 years for a styrofoam cup to biodegrade. I still adamantly avoid using any styrofoam products and hate to open up a package filled with those packing peanuts.

Cigarette butts take a LONG time to degrade and they accumulate very quickly. Please dispose of your butts thoughtfully and don’t throw them out your car window like my sister does! Yes Madison I am talking about you!